Anthony praises pre-season work

Mike Anthony has been impressed with the pre-season work of Will James

GLOUCESTER'S fitness and conditioning expert Mike Anthony is full of praise for the efforts made by Dean Ryan's squad in the last few weeks and believes they could be in the best shape ever.

The squad will jet off to Portugal later this month for a training camp but work is already well underway ahead of the new Guinness Premiership season.

While Gloucester's internationals have not yet returned to pre-season, the majority of the squad have been put through their paces at Hartpury College by the former All Blacks fitness coach.

"When I arrived at the club three years ago I think it was a bit of a fright to the players as to what I expected of them, but now we are getting these guys into outstanding shape," Anthony told www.gloucesterrugby.co.uk

"There is no way I can fault the work ethic - we are doing three sessions a day and have concentrated on three main areas - strength, anaerobic and speed.

"We have also put some weight on people like James Forrester and some of our backs because if you take Mike Tindall out of our three-quarter line, we are quite small in that area.

"But we have also combined that with agility work because we don't want them to lose their speed. In terms of where we were this time last season, we are well ahead and that is really pleasing."

On Monday, the squad were fitness tested and they also compete in regular strong man competitions that involve tyre flipping, wrestling and boxing.

Later in July the squad travel to Portugal for what Anthony describes as 'an intensive training camp.'

"I have already seen the facility and it's fantastic," he said. "It will give us a much needed change of scenery, we will eat together and work together and also have some down-time together.

"There will be a chance for them to get on the beach and play some speed golf. But as a group we are definitely further ahead than this time last year and the new guys have shown a great desire to work exceptionally hard.

"Will James has shown a fantastic attitude, he is strong and a great athlete - I have been really impressed - but the effort from everyone has been outstanding."

After a good start, and dominating for long periods at the Ricoh, skipper Tom Savage spoke after the Wasps defeat to GRTV about the small things that Gloucester have to work on as well as focussing on some of the positives.

Gloucester Rugby will take on Wasps on Sunday in their first ever visit in the Aviva Premiership to the Ricoh Arena. Speaking to the local media today, Director of Rugby David Humphreys previewed the game as well as giving an update on the injured Henry Trinder.

Following the 48-10 Aviva Premiership win over London Welsh on Saturday, Dan Murphy praised his team mates for battling right up to the very last minute in difficult conditions and maintaining the momentum that the team have built in 2015.

Henry Purdy scored two memorable tries against London Welsh at Kingsholm on Saturday, and attributed the first one to hard work on the training ground before describing how much he's enjoying playing his rugby alongside friends like Callum Braley.

Premiership Rugby today announces a new partnership with Singha Beer, which confirms the premium Thai lager as the new title sponsor of the Premiership Rugby 7s Series and an official partner of Premiership Rugby.